Our goal is to establish 300 acres of pollinator habitat and raise yields of basic grains and vegetables on 150 smallholder farms in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tlaxcala and Puebla where the Campesino a Campesino (Farmer-to-Farmer) Movement is active. Once pollinator restoration practices are established within Campesino a Campesino, they will spread throughout Central America.
Pollinators (bats, butterflies, birds, native bees, and other flying insects) have been killed off by insecticides and habitat loss, which then reduces the flowering of fruits and vegetables. Lower crop yields lead to hunger and migration. Native flowering plants that are so important to beneficial insects and natural fauna have declined. Such biodiversity is the foundation of productive sustainable agriculture that so many small-scale farmers depend upon.
This will teach the basics of pollinator restoration and conservation practices to 50 farmers from villages in Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Puebla and Oaxaca. Farmers will work together in local farmer-to-farmer teams to implement these practices on 300 acres of peasant farmland, benefiting approximately 150 farming families and improving ecosystems in dozens of watersheds. Further, using the Campesino a Campesino methodology, they will share this knowledge with over 400 other farmers in nearby villages.
The long-term impact of this Mexico project will be to improve the health of the land, animals, plants and people by bringing the knowledge and practice of pollinator restoration and conservation to thousands of farmers in the Campesino a Campesino Movement throughout Mesoamerica. The benefits to agroecosytem resilience, sustainable yields and ecosystem services will be regional in scope.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
